PERFORMANCE MARKER (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

The Polestar 3 is at its fastest in this top Performance form. Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 32

The Polestar 3 is at its most potent in this top Performance form. The dual motor powertrain puts out a frantic 680hp and has been vastly improved in this latest 800V form.

Backgroundword count: 70

As with Tesla, 'Performance' is the badge that Sino-Swedish maker Polestar applies to its most potent models. And in the case of the brand's Polestar 3, it means that you get a very fast large luxury electric SUV indeed. Little subtle gold embellishments are the only thing that set this top model apart from the standard 'Dual motor' '3' it's based on. But the acceleration gains here are very real.

Driving Experienceword count: 348

So does this Polestar 3 really put the 'sport' back into this kind of SUV - as its maker suggests? In this top 'Performance' form, to some extent, yes. It's no Porsche Macan Electric Turbo but it feels a good deal more wieldy than just about anything else in this segment. And that's quite an achievement given the prodigious 2.7-tonne weight. 'This is not a car to drive to the kindergarten', says the brand. Maybe so, but that's still what quite a few owners will do with it. With this 'Performance' version, you get the air suspension system we think this car really benefits from in urban travel. Via the central touchscreen, this set-up's damping can be varied through 'Standard', 'Nimble' and 'Firm' settings, all of which allow the car, in the words of Chief engineer Joakim Rydholm, to 'breathe and flow' over faster roads. His team have further improved driveability with this updated model, revising the anti-roll bars for better cornering stability and introducing a new in-house-developed permanent magnet synchronous rear motor that allows for greater rear power bias. You shouldn't find yourself short of speed when an opportunity comes to put all of that R&D effort to the test. That new rear motor has boosted power output and as a result, this top 'Performance' model delivers 680hp and a 62mph sprint time of just 3.9s en route to 130mph. Compare to 544hp and 4.7s for the ordinary 'Dual motor' version. With this updated 800V model, EV range has improved too, though not quite as significantly as you might hope. With the twin motor variants, the original 111kWh battery has been replaced by a denser one with 106kWh offering 394 miles with the 'Dual motor' and 368 miles with this 'Performance' version. With the twin motor variants, these figures are helped by the way that the front motor now features automatic disconnect functionality when not needed. And they depend on the driver making use of the effective 'One-Pedal Drive' brake regen system. While also setting the 'Power Delivery' to 'Range', rather than its more urgent 'Performance' mode.

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